Frank Frazetta's paintings — the focus of a family feud — are revered among connoisseurs of popular art (with video)

Saturday

Dec 12, 2009 at 12:01 AM

One man doesn't want the recent arrest of famed artist Frank Frazetta's son to overshadow the legacy of Frazetta's unique work in inspiring fans all over the world.

HOWARD FRANK

One man doesn't want the recent arrest of famed artist Frank Frazetta's son to overshadow the legacy of Frazetta's unique work in inspiring fans all over the world.

"Frank is like the grandmaster of fantasy art," said Council Bluffs, Iowa, artist Jeff Peterson, who worked with Frazetta on cataloging his collection.

Peterson tried to put his finger on what's magical about that work.

"The paintings have so much energy, so much color," he said. "The way the light hits his subjects, it brings out the human form. It's the way he uses color and shadowing. When he paints, he paints with fire."

Frazetta often used sword-and-sorcery themes, but Peterson doesn't see evil or darkness in Frazetta's work.

"He loves life," Peterson said. "Some of his images might portray darkness, but a lot of it is just pure imagination. It just comes from inside."

Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m. is the tentative date and time scheduled for the preliminary hearing of Frazetta's son, Alfonso Frank Frazetta, 52, of East Stroudsburg. Alfonso Frazetta, known as Frank Jr. and owner of Golf World on Washington Street in East Stroudsburg, was charged this week with burglary, criminal trespassing and theft for, according to state police at Swiftwater, stealing $20 million worth of his father's paintings from the family museum.

The hearing on the charges will take place before Marshalls Creek Magisterial District Judge Brian Germano.

Why are the works of 81-year-old Frank Frazetta — who mostly drew comic books, dime-novel covers, movie posters and record albums — worth so much?

First of all, there haven't been that many that have been sold. "Frank's late wife held on to these paintings, got some amazing offers and only sold a few. The one that sold for a million dollars was the first "Conan" painting that ever sold," said Lance Laspina, the southern California filmmaker who made the documentary on Frazetta.

There's another reason. "Some of his paintings are over 40 years old, so time has something to do with it," Laspina said. "And they have a kind of cult status attached to them. These are people who, 40 years ago, were kids. And now they are older, and when you have something that impacts you as a kid, it has value, especially when you're an adult and have more to spend.

"Frank is a one-of-a-kind and the best at what he does. He's looked upon as being the best at his genre, fantasy art. And he's in a rare club — there aren't that many artists that can sell a painting for a million dollars," Laspina said.

Laspina's 2003 documentary, "Frazetta: Painting With Fire," highlighted the artist's impact on the art world and the fantasy genre where he left his mark.

Laspina first met Frazetta in 1999. "We started filming in 2000," Laspina said. "It took eight or nine months to convince him to let us have the rights to do his life story for a documentary."

Frazetta's work is dark, but he wasn't the "tortured artist" type that his work may have suggested, Laspina found.

"It doesn't seem like he really had to work hard at it," Laspina said. "Some struggle. He wasn't just an artist that locked himself in a studio all day. He lived life and enjoyed sports. He was a good-looking guy and was popular, so he lived life and had a lot to draw from."

If Frazetta did have any inner demons, they may have gone way back.

"I think he had a lot to prove, not just to himself, but perhaps his parents who didn't really support him in his art career," Laspina said.

In fact, it was hard for the filmmaker to find something negative in Frazetta's life that would inspire such dark work.

"I think everything was derived from a positive standpoint," Laspina said. "He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., so he was always getting in fights, so he had to be tough. I think his background in Brooklyn probably had more to do with the genre he chose to work in."

The drawings of artist Hal Foster, creator of the "Prince Valiant" and "Tarzan" comic strips, were among Frazetta's early inspirations.

Frazetta started in comics. "He spent a lot of time doing comic book work," Laspina said. "He pretty much did well in everything he tried. He didn't just do the demons. He could do the Disney kind of style just as good as any other Disney artist could have done. He did a lot of funny stuff. Frank was very capable of mixing genres and doing them all very well."

According to a police affadavit, police said they responded to a burglar alarm Wednesday afternoon at the Frazetta Museum on Milford Road (Business Route 209) near East Stroudsburg, and found Frank Jr. inside the museum. Police said he and two other men had used a backhoe to break down the door to take about 90 of his father's paintings, insured for $20 million, and then loaded the paintings in a Ford Explorer SUV with an attached trailer.

Frank Jr.'s wife, Lori Frazetta, said he has been embroiled in a feud with his siblings, Bill Frazetta, owner of Frazetta's Fantasy Costumes in East Stroudsburg, and Holly Taylor and Heidi Gravin, both of Florida, over their father's paintings.

As of Friday, Alfonso Frazetta, who has no prior criminal record except for citations, was in Monroe County Correctional Facility in lieu of $500,000 bail awaiting his hearing.

Pocono Record writer Andrew Scott contributed to this article.

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